OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- For the third time in four seasons, the Senior CLASS Men’s Lacrosse Award has gone to an Ivy League student-athlete. Cornell senior defender Jake Pulver took home the honors in 2018 to become the sixth Ivy to receive the award.
 
Pulver is the sixth Ivy lacrosse student-athlete to win the Senior CLASS Award joining Cornell’s Matt McMongagle (2007), Max Seibald (2009), Connor Buczek (2015) as well as Princeton’s Tom Schreiber (2014).
 
To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
 
A two-time team captain and third-team USILA All-American in 2018, Pulver led the Big Red to an Ivy League Tournament championship and a spot in the NCAA Men's Lacrosse quarterfinals this season. A three-time All-Ivy defender, including a unanimous first-team selection this season, he earned a reputation as one of the best cover men in the conference and finished the 2018 season nationally ranked in caused turnovers. A four-year starter, he helped the Big Red to an Ivy championship in 2015 and has been the anchor of one of the best defenses in the conference during his four seasons. 
 
As committed to excellence as Pulver is on the field, he maintains the same standard in other notable areas including academics, community involvement and personal character. He has maintained a cumulative grade-point average of 3.37 as a biological sciences major with a pre-med concentration, to go along with a minor in business. Last summer, while studying for the MCAT, Pulver worked as a researcher with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) doctors on the completion of a study investigating the presence of a specific protein and its correlation to the severity of symptoms in IBD patients.
 
When it comes to the community, Pulver is consistently involved with service projects through the Big Red men's lacrosse team, the Sphinx Head Honor Society and Red Key Honor Society. For the past three years, he has helped coordinate the team's 21 Run to promote children's literacy, the Clinic for a Cause to raise money for the Dream Factory of Central New York and Big Red Readers and the team's participation in the Ithaca Kids Book Fest, also promoting children's literacy. Relating to his personal story, he also has been an event speaker for the Chrons and Colitis Foundation, encouraging others to continue following their dreams despite their diagnosis.
 
Penn senior long stick midfielder Connor Keating was named to the second team.
 
2018 Senior CLASS Award Winner
Jake Pulver, Cornell (Sr., D – Manlius, N.Y.)
 
First-Team
Trevor Baptiste, Denver
Tom Kennedy, Bryant
Dan Morris, Maryland
Michael Rexrode, Rutgers
 
Second Team
Chris Blewitt, Saint Joseph’s
Connor Fields, Albany
Connor Keating, Penn
Mike Rastivo, Saint Joseph’s
Shack Stanwick, Johns Hopkins